Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER

This is the BEST sugar cookie recipe- no chilling the dough, cookies keep their shape when baked, soft and flavorful, perfect for decorating.

The baked cookie…Perfect edges every time!

I have so much more to say but let’s cookie-talk for a minute. Throughout the year I have received many emails asking about my sugar cookie recipe so I’m going to lay it all out for you here. I have been using this recipe for over 20 years and it has never failed me. The texture is medium-soft but you can bake them longer if you prefer a crisp cookie. This Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER is my absolute favorite and I have spent many years perfecting it on friends and family.

It comes together quickly.

It does NOT need to be chilled.

It can be doubled easily.

It holds its shape with very little expanding when baked.

The recipe I am giving you makes a large batch of dough because I like to bake a lot of cookies. Also I like to roll and cut my cookies fairly thick…to hold a lot of frosting. Incorporating the last cup of flour may make you nervous. It will be dry and look crumbly. Turn out the dough and work with wet hands and/or more flour until the dough is smooth and ready to roll.

Most asked Q and A about this recipe:

The dough is sticky and/or crumbly. What can I do?

The final dough really comes together and has a texture close to Play-Doh. Wet your hands if you need to. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface. Don’t be afraid to use more flour and incorporate it in while you are “kneading” it into a smooth ball.

Forget everything you know about sugar cookie dough. Don’t be afraid of sprinkling more flour as you roll it out. Use the scraps! Mix them back into the unused dough and keep going.

Can I chill the dough? I want to chill the dough. Actually I need to make this 3 days in advance, is that okay?

If you need to make the dough in advance you can chill it. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. Bring the dough to room temperature before rolling and cutting. You may need to use more flour on the countertop.

The cookies look under-baked. Can I bake them longer?

I almost always suggest pulling out these cookies and the 8-9 minute mark. They will continue baking on the cookie sheet for a few minutes while they cool and set. After cooling for about 5 minutes I use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

Soft cut out sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape and dough does not need to be chilled before baking- perfect edges every time!

Ingredients:

1 Cup unsalted butter

1 Cup granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth, at least 3 minutes

Beat in extracts and egg.

In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.

DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).

Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes:

If you must chill the dough just leave it on the counter top for 10 minutes before rolling or work the dough with your hands for a few minutes.

You can omit the almond extract if you do not have it available, however the taste is really fantastic with the hint of almond.

Keep in mind that the recipe yield will vary according to how thick you roll your cookies and how large or small your cutters are.

Bake for 6 minutes to test. They should be soft. Leave them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cool completely. If you reach 7-8 minutes and the edges turn brown your cookie will be crisper.

Congratulations to: Patricia #2026 “Thanks. I want to make Snickerdoodles.” I was not compensated in any way for this giveaway and as always opinions expressed are 100% my own. Good luck!

Items used in this recipe:

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Thank you for the chance to win that gorgeous KitchenAid Mixer. Someone is going to be very happy! And thank you also for sharing your sugar cookie recipe. I remember making sugar cookies with my great aunt when I was a kid. We didn't have a nice powerful mixer to do the work for us

I would feel very lucky/blessed to have a chance to win this mixer. I've been salivating over this mixer for a while now and would love to win it so I can make all kinds of wonderful meals with it. Thank you for sharing your cookie recipe it looks awesome!

Wow! And you were able to keep THIS quiet. Woman, you have much, much more resolve than I do. This is absolutely gorgeous – drool worthy even! Thank you for even thinking of us and going out of your way to offer the KA 7 qt! Blessings!!

I would LOVE to win this mixer! I am in need of a new mixer very badly! 🙂 Mine is a regular hand mixer and I'm down to using just one of the two beaters- needless to say that doesn't work too well. 🙂 THanks for the chance!!!! 🙂

Woohoo! I can't decide if I'm more excited to have a chance to win a kitchen aid or have access to the wonderful sugar cookie recipe!!! (This is the one of those delicious ABC cookies you made for the alphabet party, right?!) I have made my sister haul her kitchen aid to my house when we make cookies here while the girls nap!!! 😀

Love your blog!! Especially the cookie monster cookies. Which my girls loved!! Thanks for posting so many great recipes. And a big thanks for giving us a chance to win that beautiful red mixer!! Happy New Year.

Fantastic recipe! I love the fact that it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, as usually the kids want to cut out cookies immediately after the dough’s made. I added a little cocoa powder as my youngest wanted chocolate biscuits and they turned out great! Thanks!

Thanks for writing, Heidi. I’m sorry that they were a bit crumbly for your liking. These cookies are very soft and so they do break easily. I like to make a pretty thick cookie so that way it can hold up to the weight of the icing. Thanks again!

I would so love to have this mixer! I have a very large family (5 kids just to start) and the capacity would make life so much easier!! Especially when holiday cooking and cookie making starts!! Your cookie recipe will certainly be being tried at my house this year as well!

Will these work with rolled/spiral slice cookies? I have a recipe idea to make swirly, sprinkles encrusted cookies that you roll into a tube and then slice and am looking for a good, firm dough to die and roll without spreading out as it bakes. Thanks!

Wow, wouldn’t I love to have this! Besides cookies, my husband and I make Lefse (a Norwegian flat bread) at Christmas time every year. It starts with 10 pounds of potatoes, which pushes my current mixer pretty hard, even though it is a Kitchenaid, the littlest model. It is just great!

Thanks for the cookie recipe, sounds delicious. I like mine thick also…

This produced a pretty soft and chewy cookie so I don’t think it would be best for cookie houses. Perhaps if you baked them for 10 minutes+ they could get firm enough but they would brown considerably.

I would be so excited to win this mixer. I have a problem with not being able to mix large batches of bread with my stand mixer because the bowl is too small. I would be in my kitchen all day baking if I won this mixer.

I often look at these and think what a blessing it would be to have something that would mix for me. Not my little hand mixer that works but not that well. My arms are usually too pooped to participate so I no longer bake much. I used to love to bake and cook but then I got sick. When I saw what this baby can do at one time I nearly fell over. For me that would take forever. In fact, I give up after reading the recipe. 🙂 This would be an awesome mixer to have. I would love to be able to enjoy baking again.

Hi Vera- Thank you! I don’t post my recipes in grams. There are many cups-to-grams conversion tables and websites listed online. With a quick Google search you can find something that works for you. Thanks again!

I would like to pin/share this recipe on Pinterest, but don’t want to post it with an expired contest and people have to wade thru all that just to get to the recipe. Is the recipe itself posted separately on your site, without the contest information? I looked, can’t seem to find it. Thanks.

I hope things worked out for you. There isn’t a problem putting the dough in to chill, it just isn’t a necessary step. I’m sorry to hear that you had trouble. Perhaps a bit more flour would do the trick next time?

God bless you for this recipe. It is very similar to one my fav Auntie gave me when I was a wee child. We made them together all the time. Over the years & through many moves, it got displaced. What a joy to find this. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to baking up a batch. Merry Christmas!

Hope the cookies are better than the kitchen aid. NOT a user friendly machine must of been designed by someone who likes to look at machines but never uses it. Does not mix to the bottom, hard to add ingredients. Worse purchase I ever made!!!

to make those cookies vegan you can easily change the butter for a vegan option and use some apple butter instead of the egg. I just made a third of your recipe and used 70 g of apple butter for it. thus, that would make 210 g for your whole batch.

I have to compliment you on seriously the BEST sugar cookie recipe ever. They baked perfectly. I hate making sugar cookies because the crumble or cook uneven, but these were awesome! They came together fast, no waiting. I added 1 tablespoon to a half batch and it was perfect. Thank you for posting this.

Katrina, I have to tell you, I have been using a family sugar cookie recipe for (way too many) years and I happened upon this recipe a month or two ago. Always had to chill the dough overnight and it really cut into my baking schedule. I tried your recipe and let me just say, they really ARE the BEST sugar cookies ever! (Sorry mom, lol) I really appreciate that they do not need chilling, a real time saver. I’ve used different flavorings and each time they came out wonderful!!! Thank you so much, you have a new fan!!!

These are exactly what I was looking for. These taste exactly like the ones a bakery here would make many years ago. I glaze mine with a vanilla butter glaze and a chocolate glaze. Yummo! This is my new favorite cookie. 🙂

Hi Katrina,
I was so excited about this recipe: quick (no chilling) and perfect shapes! Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me at all. I just tried it and my cookies spread out a lot. Maybe that’s due to differences in my German ingredients …

I wonder what I did wrong. I did try to combine the remaining flour at the end with my hands, and I did make sure to wet them. :/ I will try again and hopefully I just messed something up. The added eggs only made the cookies really puff out, which wasn’t so bad, actually. But your cookies looked so perfect, I’d like to at least try to get it right, lol.

made this recipe tonight & it was the BEST! True to it’s recipe, soft cookie dough that rolls out so easy & cuts beautifully! It is a recipe that I will use many more times in the future! I must say that I was skeptic when you said “wet your hands and complete the kneading” but I see that was what kept it soft & pliable. Thank you for sharing & Merry Christmas!

Hi there
I have been making your cookies since I found them and have loved how they have turned out! The last time I made them was this past Saturday, and the ratios included 6 cups of flour, etc. I pulled the recipe up again tonight and noticed you had adjusted some of the ratios, but some, for instance the amount of butter, had remained the same. I’m nervous they won’t turn out as perfectly since the ratios seem to not add up. Is there anyway I could get back to the original recipe you had posted? I’m eager to have these for Christmas!! Thanks 🙂

I gound your recipe just in time. These year I wanted to start my litle family traditions for my kids, like baking cookies together, the elf on the shelf, and other fun things.. I have baked before for them but not with the use of cutters. This is the first time. I have search all over for a recipe that will not give me much trouble and also one that I didnt have to chill over night or for two hours. Your recipe is simply great. I had not problem making the cookies and I didnt even have to wet my hands to mix the flour. Everything worked out perfectly and cookies were so delicious. Thanks for the great recipe, I will be back to your blog for more ideas. Merry Christmas to you and your family and once again thanks 🙂

Tried your recipe this Christmas and LOVED the way they turned out. I have a tough time gauging baking time bc I am used to lightly browned everything lol, but I was able to see, taste, feel the difference when over baking. I also love the flavor w/ almond extract but wondering if other flavors would work? Thanks for sharing your Best Sugar Cookie recipe…it was the best I’ve tried so far! 🙂

I am so anxious to try these. My mom has been making the same sugar cookie recipe for as long as I can recall. Hers uses shortening and produces a very thin, light and crisp cookie, which is good if that’s what you’re going for. I am wanting to load these bad boys up with some yummy butter cream icing, and thin cookies won’t exactly cut it. Your recipe sounds perfect! My one question/concern, however, is the almond extract. My 3-year-old is allergic to nuts, soooo… would you suggest replacing the 1/2t almond with the same amount vanilla (for a total of 1.5t vanilla) OR just omit the almond altogether? Thanks so much in advance 🙂

These are the perfect sugar cookie! Didn’t lose shape at all. They didn’t look cooked enough after 8 minutes so I almost baked them longer but then decided to follow directions for once and they were perfect! People at work loved them.
Ended up mixing the dough by hand after about half the flour was added as my mixer wasn’t cutting it. So perfect for rolling and cutting.

So glad you enjoyed the recipe- yes I agree that the cookie looks a tad underdone at 8 minutes, but truly they are soft and delicious if you pull them out. I just let them cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before removing them so they have time to set up a bit. Thanks again for writing, and for trying one of my favorite recipes!

I was wondering how long can you freeze them..have a wedding in july and have to make 200 cookiee wanted to see how far ahead we could make these and if so decorate them after they defrost? Your thoughts?

I never have has an issue with freezing then defrosting cookies. I would just suggest trying to freeze a small test batch here soon and seeing how you like the texture/flavor after it has been frozen. Trial run! 🙂 I hope the wedding is wonderful!

I have made these cookies several times… And I always make a double batch! 🙂 The only change I make is to nix the almond flavoring and use lemon instead. It is SO yummy! Tomorrow I will be making them with the almond, I’m sure they will be just as delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

I tried this recipe and had quite a time with it. Yes the dough was very stiff so I wet my hands but it still was not easy to work with. When rolling out the dough I had to wet the dough again because it kept cracking on me. I think I will go back to my old recipe where you chill the dough before rolling.

I’m actually responding in similar fashion to Rebekah. I see you have many comments, so hoping you will give me a reply. I am writing a post about my sugar cookie adventures on http://www.ibakeit.wordpress.com and was going to include a favorable comment and link to your recipe. I pinned and made it last year, but never printed the recipe out. It looks like it’s been edited since then and for my sake and the sake of anyone who reads my recipe (credibility) I, too, am wondering if the new proportions will turn out as delicious and reliable as the originally posted recipe. On a side note, I make big batches of sugar cookies on a regular basis and would love the original recipe if you’re willing to email it!

This recipe has been edited to make a smaller batch than originally published to accommodate the size of stand mixer that most people own. The original recipe was this exact recipe just doubled proportions.

You can omit the flavor if you want. I always spoon and level my flour. and yes these are chewy when baked as noted but if you need them crispy just about 1 minute longer will do it (I’ve made them both ways but I prefer chewy).

This is the same recipe as No Fail Sugar Cookies. Be warned, they are very good the day they are made but get dry thereafter. I would cut back on the flour for sure, even if it means chilling the dough. The trade off for using so much flour and not having to chill it equals a drier cookie in my opinion…

This recipe is great. Very easy to follow, I didn’t have cookie cutters so I just rolled them into dough balls and it turned out great! I think next time I’ll add a citrus extract along with the vanilla..

Hi, can I make the dough in advance one week before the party then frozen? Then just take it out , roll and bake ! If , yes how long I can keep the dough in freezer ? Also, for how long baked cookies are good ?

Thanks for sharing your recipe. How come there is no “chilling” required? I guess what I wanted to know is…what makes it retain its shape? I have an order of batman decorated sugar cookies to do and want to make sure they come out as perfect as the picture! Thanks.

HELP! I just threw this recipe together for the first time. The dough is in crumbs! How am I suppose to be able to roll out cookies with crumbs? I thought the dough was going to be to hard to mix and now its not? I followed the exact instructions. What’s a quick fix?? Please help, I don’t want to throw it all away.

I used this recipe to make iced ghost cookies for Halloween. The cookies were perfect–soft, dissolved in your mouth, and definitely held their shape. I am certainly keeping this recipe for future baking endeavors 🙂 Thank you!

Hi! I’m planning on making a batch as Christmas gifts, and I was wondering, by any chance, can I make them into a chocolate-sugar cookies? If what I’m planning is possible, do you have any suggestion on how I can achieve that? Thank you! So far, I feel like this recipe won’t be as hard as most of the sugar cookies I’ve tried (which is great). Thanks in advance! 🙂

Hi. I’m going to be making these soon and I wanted to know how hard it would be to make them without a stand mixer. Would I do the creaming with a hand held electric mixer or could I do it all by hand with a wooden spoon? Could I use a food processor?

Hello there, I’m not sure if this has been asked or not but I would like to slpit this recipe in half but im not sure how to split 1 egg into two eqaul parts. Do you have any suggustions on doing so? Also if I cant split the egg in half can I freeze half of the dough and use later?

Katrina, Katrina, Katrina!! For absolutely the first time EVER, I enjoyed mixing and rolling sugar cookie dough. I have an inexpensive stand mixer and the dough came together PERFECTLY. There was no kneading needed after mixing. It rolled out with no problem and cookies baked to perfection. The ingredients were exact on. For those complaining about crumbling, I don’t know if this makes a difference or not, but I allowed the butter to completely come to room temperature before starting, maybe that’s why I had no crumbling. So incredibly easy to make, I made two batches, back to back!. Thank you so much for sharing the best sugar cookie recipe EVER!!

I have to admit that I was very skeptical of what this recipe promised. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised! I have never made cut out sugar cookies so fast! And they are delicious! This will now be my new go-to recipe for the holidays!

Yum! These were so easy to make and delicious. My son asked for Christmas cookies after school today and I was in dread because any other recipe I’ve found you had to refrigerate for hours.
In the past anytime, I’ve made cutout sugar cookies they have had a flour taste to them. These taste a little bit like shortbread. I think I squeezed out about 2 doz. I used different sizes of cookie cutters and not sure if they were 1/4″. 😉
They did take a little longer to bake in my oven so for any newbies – bake according to the directions, but keep an eye on them. I added a couple of min each time and watched until I could see a slight browning on the edges.
I followed the directions exactly (except maybe the thicknes – but I like a thicker cookie).
Thanks for sharing!

Hi there!
I just tried this recipe yesterday and sadlly the dough wouldnt stick together and it was soo flaky!! I did wet my hands and so on. Even once baked the cookies would fall apart.
What can i do to correct it? Add baking soda? Or extra eggs?
Thank you!

Hi Katrina, I made these cookies only a few days ago as a test batch and they turned out perfectly. I am now ready for my non-test batch and made them last night but they didn’t hold like the original one. Is there something I can do to stop the spreading? I keep going through my mind – what I might have done wrong – did I over mix? Should I lower the baking powder? Your response would be greatly appreciated as I need these today

These are AMAZING! I just made them for my daughters 3rd birthday. It was a FROZEN birthday party and I cut them into beautiful snowflakes and died the dough light blue. I’ve never seen cookies hold their shape this well. Also on a side note- They also tasted phenomenal!

Hi Katrina! I just wanted to let you know that I made this cookie dough last week and it was, by far, the easiest cut out cookie dough I’ve ever worked with! The dough was absolutely delicious and will definitely be my go-to sugar cookie dough from now on! The cookies received rave reviews! Thank you so much!

I can’t remember if I commented on this already, but this is my go to recipe now. I tried with my boys last year for Christmas and they were perfect. Came to this again this year and it’s just perfect. Thank you so much for sharing. So easy, so good and perfectly cut! 🙂

These are absolutely the best sugar cookies !! Your recipe is amazing, it works wonderfully. I have always loved sugar cookies and like most, was stuck with the recipes that required hours of “chilling” and resulted in cookies with no shape. These cookies TASTE good and keep their pretty little shapes, just as you said. Anyway, thank you for sharing. This is great !!!

Just made two batches of these cookies in the past 2 days…absolutely perfect! I I didn’t even need to wet my hands to bring the dough together…it came together on its own in the mixer! Didn’t have the almond extract, so I used vanilla and WIlton butter flavor and it tasted great. The second batch I added a dash of cinnamon, and it livened them just a bit more. this has become my sugar cookie go-to recipe! Thanks so much!

I tried this recipe today, and there are NO words good enough to explain what a wonderful recipe this is! I’ve been baking for almost 50 years, and have ALWAYS been intimidated by roll out sugar cookies – I could never make a dough that was easy to handle, easy to roll out, easy to pick up with a spatula and transfer to a baking sheet. This dough not only was ALL of these characteristics, but it also tastes delicious! My KitchenAid mixed the dough up to perfection in no time, and I was done with making the dough, dividing it into thirds, rolling each portion out and cutting the shapes, and baking them all in under 90 minutes – AMAZING! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing this perfect recipe. I may make cut out cookies once a week, now that I finally have a trusted recipe to use! Sally

I made one batch of these today to put on goody trays. I did them by hand because I don’t have a stand mixer and the dough came together perfectly. No crumbling, didn’t have to wet my hands, and easy to transfer to the baking sheet with a cookie spatula. They were so easy and they taste like my “perfect” recipe I lost years ago. I think I’ll try less baking powder next time to cut down the puffiness, as I like my sugar cookies a little crisp, but the taste is outstanding. I’m making more on Christmas Eve to take to a family dinner on Christmas. Thanks!

Hello all.
Came upon this recipe on Pinterest. Was needing one to make cookies with my 4&7 yr old boys for Santa. I mixed the dough up in my Ninja blender thing. Worked wonderfully. I did have to add more flour it was so wet and sticky. Only made 22 cookies. We used good size cutters. The dough taste good let’s see how they turn out. Then the hard part decorating them with 2 kids. Sigh Merry Christmas every one.

I just made this recipe and they are to DIE FORE!!! These are the best sugar cookies ever for so many reasons!!
1- Super easy to make
2- Cooks so fast
3- They hold their shape PERFECTLY
4- The slight almond shape is amazing!!!
5- They are SO SOFT!
6- They are delicious!!!

Seriously. Everyone needs to make these cookies RIGHT NOW. Thank you for the recipe!!!!

Thank you so much for this recipe! I just made these with my kids and they turned out perfect! I LOVE that this dough holds it’s shape and doesn’t have to be refrigerated! The kids raved about the taste and declared our Christmas cookie day “a success”!

So I made these cookies for the first time and was really excited. I was able to get about a dozen and a half out of them before the dough just wouldn’t stick together any longer. I would try to roll it out and it oils literally fall apart. I would knead the dough in my hand and then try to roll it and it would do the same thing. After about 45 mins of not making any progress I decided to shelf about a little under half of the dough. I wrapped it in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge. The next day I let it sit out (for longer than 10 mins because at this point the dough was hard as rock) for about 2 hours. It was soft enough to try. I was again having the hardest time with the dough crumbling. I would try to roll balls it would literally crumble in my hand. I put water on my hands and worked it into the dough and it seemed like it would stick with some added flour. But that only got me so far. I ended up with a little over 2 dozen of cookies and they’re absolutely delicious but I don’t think I’ll be using this recipe again.

i am so so happy I came across this recipe on Pinterest! I have been using a different recipe for years but always hated the fact you had to chill the dough. These cookies came out absolutely PERFECT!!! I will never make another sugar cookie recipe ever again. It was so great for my daughter and I to just be able to mix up the dough and get straight into rolling out the dough and cutting our Christmas cookies. I have made sugar cookies with her for years and these are the absolute BEST!! The edges were just perfect. Can’t stop raving about how wonderful they look and taste. Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful recipe!! Merry Christmas and happy holidays

I made these in Ireland today and brought them to my in-laws for Christmas dinner. The dough seemed crumbly at first, but once I started kneading, it came together quickly and easily. This will be my go to sugar cookie recipe from now on. I didn’t have enough time today, so we’re going to use your royal icing recipe and decorate the leftover cookies tomorrow. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!

Thank you for this great recipe! I made a few dozen beautiful mini cookies for our family Christmas party and painted them with buttercream icing and they were GONE within a couple minutes. This will be my go to sugar cookie recipe from now on.

I am looking forward to trying these tonight , hope they are a keeper.
Looks like there might be varying results bases on quantity, ambient temp, etc. – any chance you could publish based on weight of ingredients, both metric and imperial? Might make it a bit more accurate on my part!
In Australia butter is packaged in 250g or 500g packages which is just a bit bigger than the 1 or 2 American ‘sticks’ of butter, I think. I guess any extra butter might make them likely to lose their shape so will try to follow your quantities to the letter. Many thanks.

Great! I just made so many cookies! They are great and the dough was very easy to make (did all by hand). There was so much dough, couldn’t see the end of it 😉 One thing was very hard though: to stop my kids from eating the whole cookies ! :p

I was really disappointed by this recipe. I love sugar cookies and wanted to try someone else’s cookies. Made them last night and as soon as they cool they are hard crunchy cookies. The flavor was really bland. Definitely not making them again…

I make these cookies for my dad, he loves them thin, hard and crunchy. He (and everyone else) absolutely LOVES them, they don’t lose their shape and I love that you don’t have to chill them. Thin cookies I got 30-50, honestly I don’t know maybe more. The one thing I noticed is that the dough is kind of dry, I have had to add some liquid the past few times I’ve made them. Thanks for the recipe!

Hello from France! Just made these with my almost 3yr old. Thank you for posting an excellent, quick and easy recipe. It works well with a regular mixing bowl and a wooden spoon too 😉 We cooked them at 180°C and it was perfect. Instead of vanilla (didn’t have any in the pantry) we put orange flower water with the almond extract. Lovely flavour. We often use it in crêpe recipes. Thank you once again for helping us with a fun baking afternoon.

I cut the recipe in half (beat the egg in a mixing cup and used half). The cookies came out PERFECT texture, shape, color, taste, fantastic! My butter wasn’t completely softened so it looked a bit crumbly but once I turned it out and kneaded it, it came together beautifully. I made royal icing but had no food coloring so I put some frozen blueberries in the microwave and substituted their juice for the water. It was only a light color purple but tasted great on the cookie! Thanks for sharing this great recipe it’s a keeper!

I just made these as an “I’m sorry, I love you” gift for my girlfriend. I tested one and these are definitely the best sugar cookies I have ever made and quite possibly the best I have ever eaten in my life. Thank you, Katrina for sharing this lovely recipe! She will love these, for sure!

I made these today, for a dear friend’s pregnancy announcement picture shoot tomorrow. I have a go to cutout cookie recipe that requires chilling, but tried yours because my friend wanted to learn how to make cutouts, and because we had a limited amount of time. We only got a 14 cookies, but it’s ok because they had to be big enough to write on and we rolled them thick. The one lonely little bite I got of a cookie that cracked on its way to the cooling rack was delicious! And, I’m so excited to see that they really do keep their shape!!! They’re supposed to look like Valentine’s conversation heart candies, and the clean edges made them perfect ! I made your buttercream recipe using half shortening and half butter and it was perfect, too! Next time I think I’ll try the dough hook for the last bit of flour…kneading it in worked but was hard on my hands and wrists. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

This is an excellent dough to work with. I reworked the dough 4 times doing cutouts with my kids. It never once stuck to the table. They do expand a bit in the oven. I added a pinch of salt which made them salty. This will be my new cutout recipe for sure! Thank you! Wondering if those who had trouble omitted the almond extract altogether. We subbed it with vanilla.

Thanks for posting this recipe. For the first time in my 38 years, I finally had great success in making cut-out sugar cookies. Based on reading that the dough may be crumbly, I added a tablespoon of warm water with the egg. My dough was not crumbly at all. I did end up putting half the dough in the fridge (due to a time constraint), but it was just fine when I took it out. I did wet my hands with that second batch and it was perfect. I have tried probably 15 different recipes and they were always mediocre. I agree with cutting them thicker as well. I prefer a thicker, softer sugar cookie. Mine took about 10 minutes to bake. Thanks again!

I made half of this recipe today as a test batch. I followed the directions exactly but instead of a crumbly dough I got a sticky one. I cut about 5 cookies and then kneaded some more flour into it which seemed to fix it. Still not crumbly but better to work with and did not spread. Aside from that, this is a good recipe! Very flavorful and a good texture

I made a batch today and they came out perfect. Though humidity levels are very high these days where we live, I only added more flour on my bench and they cutters did a wonderful job! It is now one more favourite recipe in my book!

Hello ! I’ll be giving this recipe a try this weekend. One question, what ingredient can I replace the Almond Extract with? It´s kind of hard for me to find it in groceries where I live.
Thanks a million!

I just wanted to say that these are the absolute best sugar cookies! I make them all the time and I haven’t had a bad batch yet! I have found that if I roll 1/2 of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper, I don’t have to add any extra flour. No sticking and no mess! I can make an entire batch in 40 minutes…from mixing, to cutting, to baking! Thank you for such a fabulous recipe!

So I had to get up early to make these for an event, and they are totally worth it. I just tried one and they are now my favorite recipe for sugar cookies too. I love that they are easy enough to make even under the dangers of sleep deprivation. Thanks for sharing it.

I have made these sugar cookies twice, and they are the only recipe I have ever tried. They are so easy to work with and I love not having to chill the dough. I use Princess cake and cookie emulsion and they taste awesome. However, I have tried royal icing with two different recipes, was careful to have no grease on bowls or utensils, flavored it with clear vanilla (no oil)… And it won’t harden. It gets a gritty looking sheen after 12 hours or so, and little cracks where it pulls apart. I now wonder if it’s this cookie recipe… It would be great for a simple sugar topping or other frosting but do you have trouble with royal icing on these? What am I doing wrong?

I’m not sure if I’m just doing something wrong, and I can’t really tell if anyone else has had any issues because the comments are all about your giveaway, however, I made these cookies going by the recipe and in my opinion they just tasted like flour. Suggestions? Anything?

Completely outdated, but I just found this recipe and was hoping i could get advice for bake ahead, shelf life of these cookies. I need 6 dozen for a cookie exchange, so I was hoping to cook them the day before. How will the hold?

These are great cookies!! My husband is not a cookie person, but even he enjoyed these! The kiddos LOVED them too. I tried the original recipe and then I tried a twist, replacing the almond extract with 2 tsp of lemon extract and icing them with lemon icing. SUPER YUMMY!! Thanks for the great recipe!!

Hey Katrina! I stumbled upon your sugar cookie recipe (I honestly don’t know how I got out of culinary school without one) and I’m so glad I made your recipe! They are perfect. Thank you for making this recipe known to the world wide webs!

Thank you so much for this recipe! The cookies turned out perfect – no spreading, perfect consistency and great flavor – not too sweet (before all of the icing and sugar sprinkles!).

For those with crumbly dough, for sure the trick is wet hand and kneading the rest of the flour into the dough like you would bread dough. Oh, and no need to spray or grease pans – these came right off with a spatula and minimum effort after 5 minutes or so.

I just finished baking these cookies and unfortunately I found them to be very disappointing. They tasted very floury (if that is even a word) and for a sugar cookie didn’t seem quite sweet enough. Maybe the intention is to have them paired with a sweet icing but not on their own.

These cookies have excellent flavor & texture! However I had a very challenging time rolling them out. The dough kept cracking and splitting. Is this normal? Should I have wet me hands? Step by step pictures would be helpful to see dough consistency.

Just made these, turned out good! I am vegan so I substituted earth balance and a flax egg for the butter and egg and it came out fine. The dough was definitely falling apart so I ended up sticking with only 2 1/2 cups of flour and not 3 and they still baked really well 🙂

Love the cookie recipe its super easy to make and wow very tasty … love that they take hardly anytime to bake, I ended up making 3 batches and dipped one end in chocolate then parceled them as gifts for christmas… Thanks so much

This is floating around FB again. To be honest, I was muttering a LOT about this recipe when my kids were cutting out shapes and we couldn’t pick them up in one solid piece. But I started using a fork to scoop them up and by George it worked like a charm. I baked them for 6 minutes and realized after the fact that probably wasn’t long enough, they were still too soft. We’re going to try again today and bake them at least 8 minutes and roll the dough out a little thinner. This will be my go to for last minute sugar cookies for the no chill part! Thanks for sharing.

I haven’t made cut out Christmas cookies since I was in high school – I am now 61. Saw your recipe on the news app on my iPhone. You made it sound so easy, so I thought I’d give it a try. These are the best sugar cookies! I used my kitchenaid stand mixer and the dough came together perfectly. The dough was easy to work with – even the cookies cut from rerolled scraps looked good. I plan on icing the Christmas tree cookies tomorrow – though nothing fancy – just green tinted icing dusted with crunched up candy canes.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.

This is the ONE…. finally. 4 little girls had the best time rolling, cutting, re-rolling and then of course decorating. I appreciate all your helpful comments about how to handle the dough. The girls did get it to play-doh condition and had a great time doing it. The dough tastes great, the cookies even better.
I am tossing all my chill for 2 hrs before rolling out cookie recipes. Love love love. Thanks so much!

We just used this recipe to make cookies for Santa — great recipe! We loved that it didn’t have to be chilled, yet was still easy to roll out. I found the dough easy to transfer using an offset spatula. Thanks!

These cookies are AMAZING. I made a test batch a couple weeks ago and dipped them in chocolate and they were so good it was scary. Now I’m making them for Christmas and will be icing them. I used fairly large cookie cutters and left them kind of thick and still got 55 cookies out of a doubled recipe.

They taste amazing with nothing on them, especially because I used vanilla bean paste. They’re sweet and delicious. I keep eating the ones that break.

Thank you for an awesome recipe. I can’t wait for my family to taste them.

I made these yesterday and the dough was extremely sticky and even with added flour on the counter, rolling pin, and hands it stayed too sticky to roll out. I ended up chilling in the freezer for about 20 min which helped. The dough was still very soft which made it hard to transfer the cutout shapes to the baking sheet. They then spread out terribly when baked. ☹️ They do taste good but was disappointed that they didn’t hold their shape as promised. Would love to try again but want some pointers on what might have gone wrong. Thanks in advance.

The dough was very very dry. I had to wet my hands several times in order for the dough to become workable so it could be rolled out. It would make sense to incorporate a teaspoon or tablespoon of wailk into the recipe at the end. I ended up putting too much water on my hands when kneading the last batch and had to throw it out. Otherwise the cookies tasted great. Not too sweet so you can definitely add frosting and sprinkles without over-sweetening the cookies.

These came out amazing! I made exactly as stated- they were our Santa cookies this year. I have never had much luck with sugar cookies. Rolling them always led to frustration. These did not stick to anything and I didn’t have to use a ton of excess flour! The dough did smell very almond-y, but once they were baked, the taste was mild and made the cookies taste better than normal. They kept their shape perfectly. These were amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe. This will be our new recipe- i am truly happy to have a frustration free recipe!

I have made these several times and with this small adjustment they are AMAZING! I double the vanilla and triple the almond. These couldn’t get any better!
I was wondering if I could color the dough or would this change the consistency? I’m wanting to do red for Valentines cookies. Thanks

These cookies came together easily and held their shape but this recipe is missing a key ingredient: SALT!! Where is the salt?? It must be a mistake not to include it. Salt must be used to bring out the flavor and sweetness of these cookies (especially since the recipe calls for unsalted butter). I think they would be great with the addition of salt. There is just something missing without it. I’m disappointed I made a double batch and now have to re-do them. Please consider adding salt to the recipe!

Anyone’s recipe not coming out as well as other’s? Be Patient! There many scientific reasons why dough doesn’t always come out the way you wanted. Ask yourself these questions first…
1. Is my oven correctly calibrated? It may actually be baking higher or lower than it’s telling you. Buy an oven safe thermometer and make sure it reads the same temp as your oven.
2. Fluff or sift your dry ingredients before measuring! Compacted flour measures differently than sifted flour so without recipes including weighed amounts, experience making the recipe a few times is usually the only real way you’re going to get it right every time.
3. Don’t let your dough get too warm! Dough should be cool to the touch the whole time, or else the butter starts melting and you finished product won’t work.
4. Do not overwork/over mix your dough! This builds up the gluten/proteins and you’ll have mis shapen or hard, cardboard like finished product.
5. Every time I hear “the cookies had no flavor,” or “boring and bland,” it’s usually because cut out sugar cookies are meant to be iced with roya icing, buttercream, sanding sugar, curds or jams. Since these toppings are so sweet, you don’t want an ultra sweet cookie dough.
6. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! You’ll ALWAYS get better at a recipe, each time you make it. If the majority of comments are great and there are just a few bad one’s, chances are it’s not the recipe. So don’t give up on a great recipe, try troubleshooting it and making it your own by playing with flavors. Taste the dough before you bake it and have fun! Food is made from love after all.

We made these for our Oscar party this weekend and HOLY CRAP they really were the best sugar cookies ever. Such a hit. We shared the recipe on our blog too and of course linked back to this site. They were such a hit! So good.

just made ur recipe for the second time this time i marbled the dough to make green shamrocks! must say they turned out great and despite my fear of not chilling all butter cookies the edges were sharp and they didnt spread! thanks for the recipe!

Just tried these tonight – you are right. They are the best cut out cookies ever!!! I have tried so many different recipes over the years and have never been happy with them. Lately I have been resorting to using mixes. This recipe is perfect – love the simplicity of the recipe, the fact that you don’t have to chill them (I never want to wait!), and they roll out and cook like a dream. I used your suggestion of taking them out a bit early and letting them finish baking on the hot baking sheet. Going to decorate tomorrow night with my grandson – fun, fun, fun! Thank you for sharing your recipe!

What a lovely and easy recipe,i have your recipe by half and it tuned out amazing,but is it possible to substitute the butter with canola oil or coconut oil and not adding the egg??
Thanks so much
Nancy

I see a lot of people trying to win kitchen AIDS in this comments section what I don’t see is anybody that is commending this young lady on an amazing cookie recipe that totally pulled my ass out of the fire and completely works 100% my cookies came out just the way I cut them out

Fabulous recipe, just perfect!! Made exactly according to the directions and they came out perfect. Rolled out beautiful and no need to chill like it says. Very soft and wonderful flavor! and I did reuse all my scraps and you could not tell any difference.
Thank you for this recipe, it’s a keeper! My search is over for a sugar cookie recipe

This is truly the best recipe for sugar cookies that I have ever tried, and I have tried many! They are absolutely delicious, cut cookies transfer easily to the baking sheet, and they KEEP THEIR SHAPE after baking! I have made these for several school events and they have always been a huge hit. I have been asked several times where I bought them. I roll them about 3/8″ thick, but have also made 1/4″ and they both bake up well. All other cookies I’ve made require refrigeration, and after working with the dough for a while, it gets warm and soft and makes it very difficult to move the dough once it’s been cut – they become misshapen, forcing you to put it back in the fridge. Thank you Katrina, for sharing this!

Love this recipe. I had failed a few of sugar cookies recipes before I found yours.
I always return to this recipe when I bake sugar cookies. The best is I do not have to chill the dough. Wonderful!
The cookies are always light and crisp, hard to stop munching.
Thank you so much Katrina!

This recipe was absolutely perfect. I wanted a cookie recipe that would allow my kids to write on them with food-grade edible color markers. The taste is fabulous, the texture is to die for. Follow the directions and don’t make them too thin! The thickness is so yummy. Thank you!